vegan, skeptic, atheist, libertarian

Leading Up to #TAM2014

(This is part of an unknown numbered series of blog posts about The Amazing Meeting 2014)

Every year I look forward to The Amazing Meeting. It’s an event that seems tailor made for my interests. However, life happens the other three hundred and sixty days a year and it’s never a sure thing that I will be able to get to TAM. So far I have been lucky. Back in March, we learned that Peedee had cancer. As with human cancer, there is no single prognosis and it would be a few weeks before we would know what we could expect. For that period of time TAM was in the background, something I had planned to do, but wasn’t thinking about.

Peedee was treated with surgery three months before TAM and was expected to do well. It was at that point, that I assumed I would be going to TAM. I did not want to assume the worst, that Peedee wouldn’t recover. As it happened, he recovered quicker than expected, and hasn’t otherwise missed a beat.

In the past, I would always be anxious during the packing process. I would think about packing weeks in advance and be nervous. This time was different. I didn’t stress out about anything other than having to get up at three am to make my flight. That turned out to be a non-issue. The drive to the airport was not filled with excitement. It felt as routine as a trip to the grocery store. The airport itself felt a normal errand. The flight was as uneventful as can be. I was in my own zone of videos and noise canceling headphones.

Once in Vegas, I still lacked excitement. Some of it felt second nature, like the trip to the rental car center, and the drive down South Las Vegas Blvd to the South Point Casino. It wasn’t until I opened the door to the casino, until I felt the air conditioned air on my face, until I could hear the ringing of slot machines in my ears, that I felt it.